Highlights of Connections 81

QR codes and iPads in the library
Narelle Keen, teacher librarian and chair of the ICT Committee at Pacific Lutheran College, describes their trial incorporating iPads and QR codes into library orientation activities.

Social media and schools as professional learning communities
Kay Cantwell, Education Officer Digital Learning, ResourceLink at Brisbane Catholic Education, presents ideas for using Twitter and other social media in professional learning communities, in collaboration, leadership support and information provision.

Libraries in the cloud
Doug Johnson, Director of Media and Technology in the Mankato Schools, discusses cloud computing and its impact on how schools provide access to resources, computer applications and file storage for staff and students.

Advocating for librarians – as opposed to libraries
This commentary by Stephen Abram outlines how librarians can market their value and skills as an individual professional without being tied to a physical library.

National Year of Reading update
Sue McKerracher reports on the launch of the National Year of Reading 2012.

Print complete issue of Connections 81

National Year of Reading starts here

Authors Hazel Edwards, William McInnes and Alison Lester at Bialik College, Hawthorn, Victoria, for the soft launch of the National Year of Reading in September 2011

Sue McKerracher explains why 2012 has been declared the National Year of Reading, and how parents, teachers, students and school libraries can get involved in this initiative to focus attention on reading and showcase the important role that libraries play in the school community.

If you don’t have a PLN
Bev Novak from Mentone Grammar School encourages educators to start developing their Personal Learning Network (PLN) and discover the joy of lifelong learning – learning anything, anytime, anywhere with anybody they choose.

Australian School Library Association Citation Award
An interview with Pru Mitchell following presentation of the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) citation award in October 2011. Pru discusses the citation and the role and impact of professional associations.

Professional development of library technicians
Kerrie Kelly and Kim Wilson outline the 2012 professional development and networking activities planned by the ALIA Victorian Library Technicians Committee.

The 2011 Horizon Report for schools
The Horizon Report profiles key emerging technologies for education providing estimates of timelines for adoption/implementation.

Print complete issue of Connections 80

Connections feedback survey now live

Please take a few minutes to provide SCIS with feedback on the Connections newsletter.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HMNS3GX

1. a SCIS Subject Heading or ScOT term to apply to a catalogue record, or
2. resources on a particular subject.

1. TO FIND A SUBJECT HEADING

Subject tab returns term anywhere in subject

Subject tab search

Selecting the subject tab before entering a search term provides the most comprehensive option for a subject heading search, looking for the subject term anywhere in subject, and returning any matching SCIS Subject Headings and ScOT terms in an alphabetical list.

The number of related titles, and details of any broader and narrower terms are provided below the subject heading.
While the default display is set to a list of 20 subject terms per page, this number can be changed to 10, 25 or 50 records per page prior to searching.

Subject browse returns term at the start of a subject

Basic search: Subject browse

The Subject browse drop down option within Basic search returns an alphabetical list of SCIS Subject Headings and ScOT terms that start with this term and also provides a count of titles and details of references.

This is helpful for finding the most appropriate subdivision of a SCIS Subject Heading.

2. TO FIND RESOURCES ON A SUBJECT
Note: these search options will provide a list of records, not a list of subject headings.

Basic search: Subject returns records with the term anywhere in subject

Basic search: Subject

Subject search within basic search looks for the search term anywhere in any subject heading and returns the records that meet that criteria.

Results are sorted alphabetically by title, but can be changed to a sort by publication date or author using the drop down options at the top right of the search results.

To find the subject heading used for a particular title, click on the title to display the full record and view the subjects. Click through from the full record to investigate that subject heading further.

Advanced search

Advanced search is accessed from the top right hand banner menu of the SCIS Catalogue, and provides the option to combine a subject search with other search parameters. Advanced search will return a list of records, sorted alphabetically by title.

Advanced search by subject and GMD

-
-
-
-
-
-
Screenshots of SCIS Catalogue courtesy of Ex Libris Voyager system

Teacher librarians as cultural change agents

Dianne Oberg discusses the concept of school culture. She believes the very essence of the work of teacher librarians – improving teaching and learning – requires that they work within the culture of the school and that they also work to change the culture of the school.

Online referencing generator

SLASA online referencing generator

This article by project managers Carol Grantham and Silvana Jenkins, describes the online referencing generator project undertaken by the School Library Association of South Australia (SLASA). It outlines the project’s rationale, the development process, the partnership with the University of South Australia and how schools are using this online Harvard referencing tool.

Digital literacy across the curriculum

This article has been prepared from edited extracts of Digital Literacy across the Curriculum, a handbook developed by Futurelab. The handbook is aimed at educational practitioners and school leaders, in both primary and secondary schools, who are interested in creative and critical uses of technology in the classroom.

Dewey Decimal Classification – Edition 23

Pam Kadow, SCIS Cataloguing Team Leader summarises the main updates and changes to subject categories in the new 23rd edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification, being used by SCIS from September 2011.
More detailed information on number relocations, discontinuations and re-used numbers is available at
www.oclc.org/us/en/dewey/versions/print.

Print the complete issue of Connections 79, term 4 2011

Search filters

The search limits available in previous versions of SCIS OPAC are still available (year, place, type, format and language), but search limits have been supplemented in this version of the Catalogue by the ability to filter the results following your initial search. These filters are found in the right hand column of the search results page.

Search filters

Log in to the SCIS Catalogue and try the filters on a search for World Cup.

• filter: 2010 and after
• filter: Electronic resources
• filter: Videorecordings
• filter: Published in Australia
• filter: Published in New Zealand

If you have requests for other filters you would like to see included as default, please let us know.

Timeout warning

A new timeout countdown feature alerts you if your search session has been idle for some time and is about to be reset.
Extension to the timeout period is also being trialled following a server upgrade.

Accessibility

The Voyager 7.0 WebVoyáge user interface was developed to comply with international industry accessibility standards.

Mobile devices

The new SCIS Catalogue is designed to display well and resize for use on various mobile devices.

Technical infrastructure

The SCIS Catalogue is now on a separate server at address: http://opac.scis.curriculum.edu.au which means it can function independently in the event of downtime on other SCIS services such as SCISWeb. If your network settings or firewall need to be changed as a result, please contact SCIS for the IP address of this server.

What’s in Scan?

Articles and school stories plus resources reviewed from a curriculum perspective, plus research and research-based articles.

Contact the Scan Editor for further information or visit the School Libraries and Information Literacy website for a subscription form.

Connect to a taster of articles from Scan this year.

Research columns
Dr James E. Herring presents the findings of a study which explored the views of Year 7 students on information literacy practices and discusses the implications for teacher librarians and teachers.

In the second research article, Mal Lee considers what it means for schools to be networked communities. The practical implications and potentials are illustrated with reference to Broulee Public School.

Reviews

Scan resource icons

Each issue of Scan includes 80+ e-resource and website reviews as well as picture books, fiction, professional and information resources reviews and more. Reviews for e-resources, including e-books and apps, indicate fees, registration or devices as needed. Icons (see table) are used for quick reference.

SCIS and Scan

SCIS record numbers and barcodes are provided with Scan reviews to facilitate creating orders in SCISWeb.

SCIS records for resources reviewed in Scan are also available for download in bulk as SCIS Special Order files [SCISWeb log in required].

Participation involves running a small software program or performing an ordinary backup, depending on the library management system. Feedback from schools indicates that participation is quick and easy, taking only minutes to do. From the results we are able to create a book count of titles held in the schools.

Author Justin D'Ath

The Australian Government uses this data to calculate payments to Australian book creators.

Australian book creators highly value the income they receive from this important cultural program.

Justin D’Ath, author of over 30 books, says…

Whenever I receive emails from children who’ve read my books, I ask where did they get them? Ninety per cent come from school libraries. If it wasn’t for ELR, I couldn’t afford to be an author.

If you are asked to be part of the project, please respond as soon as possible. You will receive a $20 gift voucher from Curriculum Press in appreciation of your assistance.

More information is available from ELR or telephone 1800 337 405 (outside Melbourne); 03 9207 9600 or email elr@esa.edu.au.

ELR – Encouraging the growth of Australian writing and publishing

This involves implementation of

Design concept for SCIS catalogue

1. a new version of the Voyager library system which underpins the SCIS service
2. a new, more intuitive interface design for the SCIS Catalogue
3. a new server platform.

We will endeavour to keep disruptions to a minimum during this time.

You will be able to follow the progress of the upgrade via:

• news postings on the SCIS website
• the SCIS twitter account and
• email messages to subscribers.
  Please ensure you have a valid email address registered with SCIS so that we can keep you informed. Simply log in to SCISWeb,  and go to My Profile to add or update your email address.

Why should we load SCIS authority files into our catalogue?
Check out this post on why SCIS authority files are valuable.

How do we decide which file(s) to download?

SCIS Authority Files page

When you are faced with the SCIS Authority Files page for the first time, there are three key decisions to consider.

1. Subject or Name authority first?
   SCIS provides authority files for subjects and for names. We suggest you start with the subject authority file as this provides maximum benefit to searchers of your catalogue.
   Then repeat the process for the name authority once you have completed the subject authority.
2. Reference only or Full authority files?
   Reference only Authority Files are highly recommended as the minimum for all schools. Importing authority records with see or see also references greatly enhances the power of search for users of your library system.
   If most of your catalogue records are sourced from SCIS and you do little or no original cataloguing, loading the SCIS Reference only Authority Files is a good first step. Note: You can always load the full authority files later if you find you need these.
   Full Authority Files contain the entire set of authority records from the SCIS database.
   Does your library have a qualified cataloguer who creates a significant number of original catalogue records, and would benefit from access to the full list of SCIS headings from within the cataloguing and/or authorities module of your library system? In this case the Full Authority Files could be the best choice.
3. MARC or ascii format?
   Different library systems require different formats for importing SCIS authority files. You will need to check with your library system vendor support team about which to use. Please ensure you consult the most recent documentation for your system.

So, how do we proceed with download and import?

1. It is advisable to do a full backup of your library system before loading authorities for the first time.
2. Download the required authority file from the SCIS Authority Files page [SCIS Authority Files subscription required].
3. Activate the process in your library management system to import or upload the authority file.
4. Run any updating or indexing workflow required by your library system.

How do we know the authorities are working?

1. Do an OPAC subject search for a common non-preferred term, such as
   Cooking (should redirect to Cookery), Chickens (should redirect to Poultry) or Hurricanes (should redirect to Cyclones).
2. If you loaded the Full Subject Authority File, then check in your library system’s authorities or cataloguing module for new subject headings from the latest SCIS Subject Heading List.

Further help for SCIS Authority Files

We have selected these resources to help you when you need online information relating to popular curriculum based topics. To make sure the resources are appropriate we’ve used the following standard criteria: accuracy, authority, coverage, currency and objectivity.

High interest topics from National Library of NZ

Add these topics to your library catalogue

SCIS provides MARC records for a range of websites each month and these are available for selection and download via the SCIS Special Order Files new SCIS websites page [SCIS login required]. Use the Last month option to preview websites added recently (including the National Library of NZ topics) and select those appropriate for your library.

To order and download SCIS records specifically for the National Library of New Zealand’s high interest topics:

1. Open the document: SCIS numbers for NLNZ topics  [Word format]
2. Delete any topics you don’t wish to download
3. Hover over the left hand column of this table until the black downward arrow appears. Click to highlight the column, and then copy the SCIS numbers
4. Paste these into the SCIS Create Orders box and click the Process Order button [SCIS login required]
5. Save the usmarc.dat file from the SCIS Orders table to your computer, and import it to your library management system.
6. Check by title or subject that the records display as you expect them in your library catalogue’s search module.

If you know you want the full set of 47 topics then open this file of SCIS NLNZ order numbers only. Then copy and paste the SCIS order numbers into the SCIS Create Orders box and click the Process Order button [SCIS login required].

Want more websites?
Do let us know what kind of websites and topics you are looking for in SCIS.